The Foreign and Commonwealth Office spent $30,000 (around £18,775) sending diplomats to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, figures published on Monday reveal.

Responding to a written parliamentary question on Monday, Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said the UK ambassador to the United States, Sir Peter Westmacott, and six representatives from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's US network attended the conventions.

The cost of attending the Democratic Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina was $14,353.29 (approximately £8,888.73).

And the cost of attending the RNC in Tampa, Florda, was $16,460.64 (approximately £10,193.76) respectively.

According to the FCO the delegations were the same size as those that attended the conventions in 2008.

Several politicians also led delegations to the conventions in August and September. Lord Ashcroft, Dan Hannan and Sajid Javid were among the Tories who saw Mitt Romney speak.

Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander and former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband travelled to the US to watch Barack Obama.

The $30,000 price tag may not be too much of an extravagance, but William Hague could have stuffed one-and-a-half more snakes with that.